Error detection/correction and fault detection/recovery – Data processing system error or fault handling – Reliability and availability
Reexamination Certificate
1998-03-09
2001-12-25
Beausoleil, Robert (Department: 2184)
Error detection/correction and fault detection/recovery
Data processing system error or fault handling
Reliability and availability
C600S300000, C128S924000, C128S920000, C705S002000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06334192
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a computer system for a self administered assessment of the risk of an event, and more specifically, to a computer system and method for assessing the risk of an event based on responses to questions posed to a user through an interactive self administered risk assessment computer program.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The means to administer a risk assessment have not kept pace with the increasingly complex risk assessment rules that are the result of extensive research and analysis. Particularly in the area of health, data that is collected with the goal of understanding the factors associated with a medical condition, from expensive well-planned epidemiological research studies, may have been analyzed by means of logistic regression, regression trees, discriminant analyses, or other sophisticated statistical methodologies, that result in extremely complicated rules to assess risk. Such rules are too complex to be readily applied. This invention provides a means to allow even an unsophisticated user to perform highly complex risk assessments in a casual though error-free manner.
It is clear that such a tool is needed. For instance, the changing face of health care is, among other things, forcing people to take more responsibility for their own health, and assessing personal risk is an important facet. We see more instances of simple health assessments printed in newspapers, and magazines. By necessity these personal risk assessments must be easy for the reader to apply, since usage rates for complex assessments are low, and error rates are high. The typical personal assessment may require answering a simple set of questions, adding up a point total, and then assessing risk according to the range in which the point total falls. Such simple assessments are about at the level of complexity that can be typically handled without undue chance of error. The problem with such simple assessments is that they are by necessity simplifications from more detailed studies, and subsequently lack the precision of the studies from which they are taken. The tradeoff is that to be usable, they have to be simplified. The main object of the current invention is to provide a useable computer tool that can administer even the most sophisticated risk assessments.
Even sophisticated users may have difficulty performing a complex risk assessment. The research paper “A computer protocol to predict myocardial infarction in emergency department patients with chest pain”, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Mar. 31, 1988, Vol 318, pages 797-803, presents a risk assessment that can be used by emergency room medical personnel for triage of patients with symptoms of chest pain. The analysis and procedure is presented without any suggestion for a means by which it may be operationally used in the emergency room. The complexity of the decision rule, possibly requiring the answering of up to 8 questions, and the severity of the consequences should a mistake occur, mandate a careful approach to the means by which the rule is implemented. The present invention can be an important element in standard operation procedure by which this rule is applied in the emergency room.
OBJECT AND ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION
The main object of the present invention is a computer system that provides an easy means for a user to invoke and perform and interactive risk assessment. An important feature of the invention is the ease with which extremely complex risk assessment algorithms can be administered. This means that users of the invention will have access to, and be able to self administer risk assessments from research studies without having to be concerned with the complexities of the methodologies and implementation. Also risk assessments will no longer have to be simplified in order to be usable. The invention achieves this by administering an interactive risk assessment, which poses one question at a time, recording responses, and presenting to the user either the assessed risk, or the next portion of the risk assessment algorithm that they are to respond to. Also, the risk assessment program has the means to present the risk assessment in a multiplicity of formats, and with customization options to let the user proceed in a manner that they find most useful.
Another important object of the system is to be able to administer complex decision rules. This includes inverted tree type decision structures in which the path of questions is dependent and determined by the responses to prior questions. Such structures have been heretofore unavailable for personal risk assessments because of their complexity.
Other important objects of the invention are the wide availability of the system, the ease with which the risk assessment algorithm may be updated and maintained, as well as the scope of risk algorithms that can be available to users. Since the assessment is data driven from a risk assessment definition maintained on a server node of a computer network, all computers that have access to the server can be used to administer a risk assessment. Update of the risk assessment, as more current algorithms become available is achieved by replacing the risk assessment definition with the new definition and are immediately available in all subsequent risk assessments. Also, since any risk assessment that can be defined according to the structure of the risk definition file can be administered by the program, and this structure is general enough to accommodate a wide variety or risk decision structures, a large number of different risk assessments can be maintained in a central location on the same server and made available to users. An additional feature is that all these risk assessments are now administered in a similar way, so once the user can successfully master the administration of any risk assessment, they have the skills to administer all others.
In accordance then with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the invention consists of a client program running on a client node of a computer network, and a server program running on server nodes of a computer network. As a response to a request from the client program for a risk assessment definition, the server can send a response to the client program, that has sufficient information to fully describe the risk assessment that is to be administered. The system is thus data driven, and can administer any risk assessment that conforms to the structure and criteria of the risk definition file. Each risk definition is easily updateable by replacing the risk definition file with a new file that describe an updated risk assessment decision rule.
The system is capable of presenting in a fashion usable to even novice users, even the most complex risk assessments involving deeply nested decision paths, and paths in which the questions that is asked at any level is dependent upon the answer to previous questions, and can implement complicated mathematical risk assessment formulas, in which the values for parameters are provided by the responses to questions presented during the risk assessment.
The user interface of the risk assessment program is event driven, and carefully guides the user through the intricate risk assessment by presenting a series of questions to which the user in turn responds. At the end of a series of questions the risk assessment is presented to the user. The interaction between the user and the risk assessment client program include not just the ability to respond to questions on the screen, but also provide means for the user to customize the screen presentation in a manner consistent with their personal comfort level. A multiplicity of display modes are available, and the user may choose the display mode with which they are most comfortable, and during the risk assessment switch between display mode. Also, the degree of detail about the previously answered questions and subsequent questions that is displayed is controlled by the user.
Beausoleil Robert
Bonzo Bryce P.
Dickstein , Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky, LLP
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